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Databases · head to head

Canary Labs vs Qdrant

Canary Labs logo

Canary Labs

Databases

Industrial process historian with published per-tag pricing and no client licence fees

From
$3000/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Qdrant logo

Qdrant

Databases

High-performance vector database for similarity search and embedding-based retrieval

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Qdrant has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Canary Labs pricing steps by tag band rather than actual tags, so a site sitting just above a threshold pays the next band in full; growth from 3,400 to 3,600 tags is a licence purchase, not a rounding error.; Qdrant free tier extremely limited (0.5 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 4GB disk); suitable only for experiments
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Canary Labs and Qdrant actually diverge.

Attributes where Canary Labs and Qdrant differ
AttributeCanary LabsQdrant
Starting price$3000/yearFree
Pricing modelPer tag band per yearfreemium
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, WebCloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes, Self-hosted, Edge (beta), Serverless (coming)

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Databases).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Canary Labs

  • Loss-less compression
  • Unlimited clients
  • Store and forward
  • Views service
  • Sparkplug B
  • Calculation engine
  • Axiom
  • ODBC and REST

Only in Qdrant

Nothing recorded that Canary Labs does not also cover.

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Canary Labs

  • A manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a PI System enterprise agreementnot Qdrant
  • A water utility replacing SCADA-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next SCADA replacementnot Qdrant
  • An Ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboardsnot Qdrant
  • A plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an auditnot Qdrant

Qdrant

  • Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) backends for LLM applicationsnot Canary Labs
  • Semantic search across large document corporanot Canary Labs
  • Multimodal retrieval (text, images, video) for recommendation systemsnot Canary Labs
  • Similarity-based product or content recommendationsnot Canary Labs
  • Real-time vector indexing for streaming embedding datanot Canary Labs

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Canary Labs

  • Pricing steps by tag band rather than actual tags, so a site sitting just above a threshold pays the next band in full; growth from 3,400 to 3,600 tags is a licence purchase, not a rounding error.
  • CustomerCare at 18 percent of licence cost is effectively mandatory on perpetual licences because lapsing it removes upgrades, so the perpetual option is not really a one-time cost.
  • The storage format is proprietary; getting data out at volume means the ODBC connector, an additional 2,500 USD one-time or 1,000 USD a year, or writing against the REST API.
  • Canary is a small vendor with a limited partner network outside North America, so support coverage and integrator availability in Europe and Asia are thinner than for AVEVA or Ignition.
  • It is a Windows-only server product with no Linux or container deployment, which complicates placing collectors in modern edge estates.

Qdrant

  • Free tier extremely limited (0.5 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 4GB disk); suitable only for experiments
  • Standard and Premium pricing usage-based; specific costs not published; requires calculator or quote
  • Requires understanding of embeddings and vector search concepts; not suitable for SQL-only teams
  • Early-stage serverless offering (coming soon) suggests maturity gaps in that deployment model

Pricing, plan by plan

Canary Labs

$3000/year
  • Subscription, 3,500 tags$3000/year
    • Unlimited Axiom clients
    • Unlimited Excel clients
    • Support and upgrades included
  • Perpetual, 3,500 tags$8730/one-time
    • 7,400 USD licence plus 1,330 USD first-year CustomerCare
    • CustomerCare renews at 18 percent of licence cost per year
    • Unlimited clients
  • Private cloud, 3,500 tags$12320/year
    • Hosted by Canary
    • 1,500 USD one-time setup fee per system
    • Scales to around 58,684 USD per year at 60,000 tags
  • Enterprise unlimited$undefined/year
    • Unlimited tags
    • Negotiated licensing terms
    • Quoted pricing

Qdrant

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Single-node cluster
    • 0.5 vCPU
    • 1GB RAM
  • Standard$undefined/usage-based
    • Dedicated resources
    • Flexible scaling
    • High availability
  • Premium$undefined/minimum spend
    • SSO and SAML
    • Private VPC links
    • 99.9% uptime SLA

Which should you pick?

Choose Canary Labs if

  • You need loss-less compression.
  • You work on Windows, Web.
  • You also want unlimited clients.
Canary Labs review

Choose Qdrant if

  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes, Self-hosted, Edge (beta), Serverless (coming).
Qdrant review

Questions people ask

Is Canary Labs or Qdrant better?
Neither clearly leads. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year and Qdrant at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Canary Labs or Qdrant?
Qdrant has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $3000/year for Canary Labs and Free for Qdrant.
Does Canary Labs or Qdrant run on more platforms?
Canary Labs runs on Windows, Web. Qdrant runs on Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes, Self-hosted, Edge (beta), Serverless (coming).
Can I use Qdrant for free?
Yes. Qdrant has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year.
What is Canary Labs best used for?
Canary Labs is most often used for a manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a pi system enterprise agreement, a water utility replacing scada-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next scada replacement, an ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboards, a plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an audit. Of those, a manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a pi system enterprise agreement and a water utility replacing scada-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next scada replacement are not what Qdrant is typically brought in for.
What can Canary Labs do that Qdrant cannot?
Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Unlimited clients, Store and forward, Views service.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Canary Labs: What does Canary cost?

8,730 USD for a 3,500 tag perpetual system including first-year CustomerCare, or 3,000 USD a year on subscription.

Qdrant: Can I use Qdrant for free?

Yes, Qdrant offers a free tier that provides a single node cluster with 0.5 vCPU, 1GB RAM, and 4GB disk space. It includes free cloud inference with selected models and is described as free forever for testing and prototypes.

Source
Canary Labs: Are client licences extra?

No. Unlimited Axiom browser clients and unlimited Excel clients are included on every tier.

Qdrant: How is Qdrant Cloud billing calculated?

Billing is calculated based on actual resource usage during each billing period. You are charged hourly for compute (vCPU), memory (GB), storage (GB), backups, and any paid inference tokens used.

Source
Canary Labs: Is perpetual cheaper than subscription?

Canary states perpetual pays off after roughly three years, and after that you still pay 18 percent CustomerCare annually.

Qdrant: What happens if I scale beyond the free tier?

The Standard Tier uses the same usage-based billing model as the free tier but adds features like dedicated resources with flexible scaling, highly available setups with backup and disaster recovery, and a 99.5% uptime SLA.

Source
Canary Labs: Does it use lossy compression?

No. Canary stores every collected value rather than approximating the trend, which matters for regulated data retention.

Qdrant: What SLA does Qdrant offer?

The Standard Tier provides 99.5% uptime SLA. The Premium Tier, which requires a minimum spend for enterprises, offers 99.9% uptime SLA along with single sign-on and private VPC links.

Source
Qdrant: Are there dedicated cloud infrastructure options?

Yes, Qdrant offers Hybrid Cloud (runs on your infrastructure) and Private Cloud (complete isolation) options, both with custom pricing that requires contacting the sales team.

Source
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